Chocolate and Vanilla

Dylan looked in the cabinet earlier this evening and found the container of cocoa powder I had just bought. He pulled it out and made a motion like he was going to eat some of it. My initial inclination was to let him try it--he'll only do that once. I told him and his sister though the story of when I had tried baker's chocolate as a kid. Stefanie and I both suggested that they should try vanilla extract as well...as you can imagine, hilarity ensued. The culprits:

Down the hatch with about a half a teaspoon of cocoa:

Sofia only touched her tongue to the cocoa, but Dylan went for first prize. Immediate reactions:

Contemplating the vanilla immediately post-cocoa:

Vanilla reaction:

The "we're never going to do that again" pose:

New job training opportunities for impoverished youths

'Students First In Line' Program To Offer Job Training At Needy Schools

9/11

On September 11, 2001 I was in Kuwait, and had been there for about a month. I ended up coming home on time--we all thought for sure that we were going to be extended, but it didn't end up happening. I keep most e-mail, except stuff that is definitely junk, but one of the ones that I've kept--and kept track of is the following, it's actually one of the oldest I still have. The first e-mail address I ever had was back in 1995 at least, but it wasn't until about 2001 that I signed up for a yahoo! account. Things to notice: the date and time--almost exactly five minutes before the first plane hit. Stefanie told me later that she hit send and then looked up at the television where she happened to have CNN on. I've edited the original text of the e-mail quite significantly, but what I've edited out is to this day none of your business. :) What I still find interesting is the routineness--the relaxed, "yeah, this is what is going on, even though you are so far away" -ness about it. Needless to say, other e-mails I got later in the week were a bit more frantic. Oh, and the subject line was a conversation we were having about future enlistment options--this was number who-knows-many in the series of the conversation that had long since turned from the original subject.

From:	xxx@aol.com
Date:	Tue, 11 Sep 2001 08:41:26 EDT
Subject:	Re: 98GAD airborne
To:	xxx@yahoo.com

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well it sounds like you are having a better time now. i am glad. Your emails sound mre upbeat than before. i just want you to be happy and have a good time while you are there. like i said before - it isn't often that an american boy from ct goes to kuwait. it is what you make of it. have fun but be good and be careful :) things here in texas are just the same old crap. nothing new and exciting.

karen got a job at jesters. it is that killeen style hooters. kind of cheesy but i bet the tips are good. it is going to be hard now to not have 24 hour a day help. it has been so great though the amount she has helped me. i am very lucky. so i talked to my mom the day before yesterday. she is not coming down here until the end of october. so she will be here for sofia's birthday. she is driving too.

do you get cbs over there? on satellite? this week on oprah it is a week long series with dr phil. he is doing some kind of seminar. it is pretty good so far.

let's see what else can i tell you - yesterday sofia was walking around the house with my ernie slippers yelling "elbo shoes" she calls all muppets elbo. but she does say oynie/but (ernie/bert). she is too cute.

well dylan is up now and i am typing one handed so it is no longer fun :) i have to get sofia ready for school anyway.

i miss you and love you and can't wait to hear from you.

love always,

Stefanie

Pirates are cool!

Be sure to celebrate Talk Like a Pirate Day! September 19th comes but once each year!

Traveling

Check out travbuddy.com. You can scroll all the way down to see the maps that Stefanie and I made. Apparently I've been to 8% of the countries of the world and Stefanie has been to 9%. And for full disclosure--we are in the "airports count" faction of figuring out what countries you've been too. For me the only one in that category (as well as a few states too, Colorado and Michigan for example) is South Korea. Oh, and I think I've been to Austria, but I can't be quite sure, but I counted it anyway. More cool trivia on that though is that Stefanie has been to countries that don't even exist anymore (East Germany, Soviet Union). And even a few countries that weren't independent countries at the time she visited them (Lithuania, for example). We counted all those too.

Hippoclub Dar Naouar

Hey! Check out hippoclubdarnaouar.com --especially the employees and photo gallery pages for some familiar faces...

Happy Labor Day!

We spent labor day weekend back down at the beach. We agreed that the food wasn't as good as the place we stayed at in June and the rooms were a bit nicer at the other place, but Magic Life beats out Aldiana in several important categories. 1) Ambiance 2) Beach chair availability 3) when Magic Life says "all inclusive" they actually mean it and most importantly 4) drop the kids off at the kids club which is located in the same building as the "family" rooms and they get to play all day while mom and dad get to relax. Phew, we needed that. As part of the kids club ("Mungo Club" -- we think that Mungo is the name of the bear mascot of the club) they made microphones out of tin foil and paper and then participated in a talent show last night. Sofia was a "Rasta Girl" --she and three other girls lip synched and danced to a Shakira song. Dylan got a fake beard, mustache and chest hairs and was part of the "Harley Boys", they did an AC/DC number. After each performance the MC asked each little kid what their names were and where they were from. The MC asked each one in German and then translated the responses into English, all but about 4 of the 30 some kids were either from Germany, Austria, Liechtenstein or Luxembourg. There were two kids from Algeria--and you can guess where the other two were from. When Sofia was asked where she is from she answered, "America" --which actually got a big round of applause and some other various cheers. But when Dylan was asked where he is from he answered, "Texas!" Which got a huge positive response from the crowd. They all thought it was hilariously funny--which was actually pretty neat to see. Anyway, Dylan and the Harley Boys ended up winning first place in the talent contest (judged by three randomly selected people from the audience--all who happened to be from Austria). He was very excited about winning--especially since he was able to put his air guitar skills on display.